Laptop for Little Sister

[Nikose Tyris]

I'm hoping that if anyone remembers my kid sister, they remember her in a good light (http://www.nuklearpower.com/2010/08/12/cancer-lol/).

She's going into high school, and she's been very responsible with her emergency cell phone and her iPod- she saved up and bought both herself, and she's never run up the bill on her cell phone higher than $30 a month. As a reward, My grandmother and I want to get her a laptop, and asked if she had any particular desires; she responded with only wanting a 15-17" screen size, preferrably smaller, and that it run the Sims 3.

I have no idea where to start, in terms of reliability and shit anymore. Ideally I could order it from TigerDirect (because I can usually just call and pick it up at the store near my place), but if anyone could help me out by linking good options at me, I'd be much obliged.

Edit: WRONG CATAGORY NU JUTSU and what not. Hrm.

[Aldurin]

Going from what I experienced with laptops, avoid anything that tries to do weird non-Nvidia graphic hardware, and look at the less-than-new models and the reviews by people who have used them long term. My laptop is one of the ASUS bamboo models and I've been regretting it for a while. The dual Intel and nVidia graphics messes with so much and nowadays it gets progressively laggier.

I've heard good things about Alienware and stuff like that, but really that's all I know.

[PyrosNine]

A modern Aspire (I can vouch for them) could probably swing Sims 3, it isn't a resource intensive game. Your budget is probably $300-400 for a brand new Laptop/Netbook,

So lemme see.

$392 Acer 15.6 HD Display
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V5-531-4636-15-6-Inch-Display/dp/B0080EBMM8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345441657&sr=1-1&keywords=acer+aspire+15+inch

Gateway 15.6 $339.87
http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-NE56R11u-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B007VWX8YK/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1345441907&sr=1-5&keywords=17+inch

A Dell Inspiron 15R. would run you back $489, but my bro, sis, and Mom all use one as their go-to for school and the like, and it is a capable machine for the average computer user.

Whatever you get, you should get her a new laptop- and a boxed one at that, to be sure that it not only has everything she needs, but also doesn't break or wear down during school.

I wouldn't recommend an Alienware unless she's a hardcore gamer, or has been REALLY REALLY good. A decent Alienware is also HUGE.

[akaSM]

Clevo laptops seem to be good and well known among gamers. Also, they're cheap and look simple yet, nice. You'll most likely find them rebranded as Sager. Xotic PC sells them but, dunno about any Canada resellers, there's at least one though.

[Nikose Tyris]

A modern Aspire (I can vouch for them) could probably swing Sims 3, it isn't a resource intensive game. Your budget is probably $300-400 for a brand new Laptop/Netbook,

So lemme see.

$392 Acer 15.6 HD Display
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V5-531-4636-15-6-Inch-Display/dp/B0080EBMM8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1345441657&sr=1-1&keywords=acer+aspire+15+inch

Gateway 15.6 $339.87
http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-NE56R11u-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B007VWX8YK/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1345441907&sr=1-5&keywords=17+inch

A Dell Inspiron 15R. would run you back $489, but my bro, sis, and Mom all use one as their go-to for school and the like, and it is a capable machine for the average computer user.

Whatever you get, you should get her a new laptop- and a boxed one at that, to be sure that it not only has everything she needs, but also doesn't break or wear down during school.

I wouldn't recommend an Alienware unless she's a hardcore gamer, or has been REALLY REALLY good. A decent Alienware is also HUGE.

Ahhhh Pyros you are perfect, that was pretty much exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

Ultimately I ended up going with this purchase because I went in and bought it on Saturday for her but it's still in box-

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3468616&CatId=4938

It seems like a good deal and it looks like it's hardware-superior so I did good maybe? I think it'll do? If I'm wrong WARN ME NOW I have 24 hours to fix it. :P

[Red Fighter 1073]

Yeah that looks fine to me. I like HP laptops, though some might not feel the same way. Sims 3 isn't really a PC intensive kind of game, so dual-core processor and some kind of AMD/Nvidia/etc. specialized graphics card should work fine, and you have both in that laptop.

systemrequirementslab.com is usually a good place to go to check if your PC matches game requirements.

Sims 3 technically is for Windows XP and below, but I've heard that it also works on Win7.